RobboJan's Naturetrek: 5th Day Of Our Island Adventure

Monday 3rd November 2014

As this week goes on I seem to be getting up earlier each day. I went o bed anout 10.30pm and I'm up at 12.15am. If it goes on like this I'll be getting up before I go to bed!

Jan got up about 7.45am and I was asleep on the sofa, and it was raining. Before we had breakfast Jan spread some bird seed along the top of the front wall. It must have been all of 30 seconds after she came in that a Great Tit decided to avail himself of a take away and it wasn't much longer before we had up to 20 birds feeding on the seed. Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Wren, Chaffinch, Blackbird with a Black Beak (possible Scandinavian Bird), House Sparrows, Dunnock and some Goldfinches observing from a nearby bush. The seed was all gone by the end of our breakfast and when Jan repeated the feeding they were just as eager.

I also saw our first Greenshanks, along with the Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatchers, Heron and Turnstones in the bay.

It was quite a bit cooler today, even the wind had died down considerably and when it stopped raining and the clouds lifted a bit, it revealed that the mountain tops had a covering of snow. Today was a much better day weather wise, with just the odd light shower during the day. The temperature was about 8C.

Our first job of the day was to fill up the car, so we went to Salen which is about half way between us and Tobermory on the East coast of the Island. We couldn't resist taking a photo of this road sign.

We have yet to see an Otter on this trip so this was today's target.

After filling the car up we went down to the pier at Salen and parked up by what was shown on the Ordnance Survey Map as a the remains of an old fort. All that was left of it were about 15 posts sticking out of the water in Salen Bay. Every one of the posts had at least one Cormorant on it drying it's wings. It is interesting that Cormorants, although being diving birds, have no waterproofing oil on their feathers and after diving a few times they have to get out of the water and dry off. I always think they are such a primordial looking bird a real living link to the age of the dinosaurs.

At this location we saw three Red Breasted Mergansers and two Little Grebes all busily diving on the edge of the Bladder Weed. We also saw two Harbour Seals (Common Seals) poke their heads above the surface. Jan saw the first of today's half a dozen or so Buzzards and there was a Robin and two Blue Tits feeding on a nearby bush.

We moved on to Fishnish where we'd originally landed from the Ferry last Friday. There was a picnic spot/viewpoint with a hide; we stayed there for about 30 minutes or so. We saw more family groups of Cormorants in the Sound of Mull and two Shags but no Otters. We did catch a few glimpses of some other birds flitting about in the Spruces, we think they may have been Siskins but we didn't get a good enough look at them to be able to identify them properly. Interesting to note that from the hide yesterday, a Great Northern Diver and a Pod of 5 Bottlenose Dolphins were spotted.

We moved on to Loch Spelve and Creggan. Immediately after leaving the main road to Fionnphort we were in Ancient Woodland that had a magical quality about it. The road carried the usual Weak Road warnings and the surface was far from even with a grass strip growing down most of the middle of the road. After passing through the woodland the Lochside road entered a much more wildnerness environment, this was Eagle Country.

Loch Spelve has several Fish and Mussel Farms on it and one of the Fish Farms is enormous and at one point stretches across nearly the whole width of the Loch, it is unusual as well that it has a walkway from the shore to the cages. There aren't many dwelling places along the Loch and most of what there were are long delapitated and abandoned. Along the shore of the Loch were many Herons, which like the Buzzards are fine unless you slow down or stop, then they're off. We also saw several Curlew and Greenshank mostly asleep on the shoreline.

Then we came across a bird that was new to us, the Twite. This is a specialist upland bird and we saw a group of about 8. Then not very much further on we came across a large flock of Redwings about 200 of them, continually moving through the field. These were possibly freshly arrived from Scandinavia and sometimes they migrate in flocks of thousands. They fly during the night and their whistling calls to each other can be clearly heard as they pass overhead. These birds might well be destined for Norfolk, they are one of the Thrush family and love worms and other insects on Farmland. I shouldn't think they would be staying on this part of Mull.

Creggan is about 8 miles or so from the main road and the journey can't be undertaken at any speed as there aren't many passing places and road is uneven and twisty but that suits us as we can poodle along keeping an eye out for wildlife. We only came across about 5 cars on both legs of the journey. The day had brightened up and there was even some sunshine, a welcome relief to the rain and wind of late. Even the temperature climbed to a heady 10C!

Passing more Herons and Hooded Crows we came to another Fish Farm and a Harbour Seal popped up between it and us. It looked us if it was observing us but refused to stay on the surface long enough for us toget any pictures or video. We then came across this beautiful Waterfall.

We carried on until the road petered out into a grass track, we were at Creggan a tiny hamlet of about half a dozen or so homes. It had a pier so obviously it was a fishing community and while we were there we observed a fishing boat returning from the sea.

We parked at Creggan and had our coffee there. We saw another pair of Red Breasted Mergansers and I saw high up in the hills on the other side of the Loch about 8 Red Deer feeding on some lush grass around a ruined Farm House.

It was now about 4pm and the light was starting to go so we began our journey home. All along the Lochside we had seen Rabbits, they were much smaller than what we normally see, obviously because of the harsher enviroment but in Creggan we came across three melanistic (black) rabbits and in one of the gardens a mixed collection of Chickens, Ducks, Geese and Peacock including one leucistic (white or devoid of colour but not albino) Peacock.

As we were driving back we reflected on the fact that the day had been good but there had been no wow factor. We stopped at the waterfall that I had already photographed with my iPad (so I could include it in the blog) because Jan wanted to get a picture of it, when Mull smacked us right in the face with the biggest Wow of the week so far! Out of the ferns no more than 3 metres from us and coming right towards us was an Otter Cub, it wasn't fully grown and probably a female, less than a year old, it was completely unperturbed by us and slipped into the pool under the bridge we were stationary on, the engine was running and the lights were on. Jan had the camera in her hand but it was just one of those moments when all we could do was to say together Wow! An Otter! That made our day but there was still a little bit more to come.

Getting back on the main road, the light was now almost gone but there was bright moon in the sky we came across 4 Red Deer Hinds by the roadside. We carried on to Craignure to get some supplies and then returned to Lochdon and I took this picture of the scene that awaited us on our return. Just before I took this picture on the iPad two Herons flew directly over our cottage.